Legislative Yuan elections

In Taiwan, parliamentary elections are held every four years to elect the 113 members of the Legislative Yuan, the unicameral legislature of Taiwan. The current electoral system was introduced in 2008. The constitutional amendments of 2005 extended term length from three to four years, reduced seat count from 225 to 113, and abolished the National Assembly, originally another governmental organ equivalent to a chamber of parliament.

Current electoral system[edit]

Members are elected by parallel voting:

73 members by first-past-the-post in single-member districts
6 by single non-transferable voting in multi-member districts, exclusive for persons with indigenous status
34 by party-list proportional representation voting

Single-member constituencies[edit]

The delimitation of the single-member constituencies within the cities and counties was initially a major political issue in the early years, with bargaining between the government and the legislature. Of the 15 cities and counties to be partitioned (the ten others have only one seat), only seven of the districting schemes proposed by the CEC were approved in a normal way. The eight other schemes were decided by drawing lots: "Taipei and Taichung cities and Miaoli and Changhua counties will adopt the version suggested by the CEC, while Kaohsiung city will follow the consensus of the legislature. Taipei county will follow the proposal offered by the opposition Taiwan Solidarity Union, Taoyuan county will adopt the ruling Democratic Progressive Party's scheme, and Pingtung county will use the scheme agreed upon by the Non-partisan Solidarity Union, People First Party, Kuomintang and Taiwan Solidarity Union."^[1]

Under Articles 35 and 37 of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act [zh], the electoral constituencies are to be revised every ten years based on population density. Demographic data is obtained by investigation of household registration and should be compiled two years and two months before the tenure of current legislators end. The Central Election Commission reviews the boundaries, then submits any proposed alterations to the Legislative Yuan 20 months before the election for final consent and announcement.

Indigenous districts[edit]

Six seats are reserved for indigenous peoples. They are elected by single non-transferable vote in two 3-member constituencies for lowland aborigines and highland aborigines respectively. This system did not fulfil the promise in the treaty-like document A New Partnership Between the Indigenous Peoples and the Government of Taiwan, where each of the 13 recognised indigenous peoples was to get at least one seat, and the distinction between highland and lowland abolished.

Party-list[edit]

Seats are allocated using the largest remainder method with the Hare quota which, with 34 seats, is 2.9412%. A party's vote share must exceed a threshold of 5% to win any seats. Votes for parties which do not pass the threshold are first excluded. The vote share for the remaining parties are calculated. A party is allocated one seat for every 2.9412% of votes. The remaining seats are allocated in succession to the party with the largest remainder.

For each party, at least half of the legislators elected under this system must be female. Therefore, with an odd number of seats, females will always outnumber males.

Parliamentary elections since 1991[edit]

Year	Chamber Order		Seat composition	Political parties by popular vote
Year	Chamber Order		Seat composition	Political party		Constituency	Party list	Seats
1991	NA	2			Kuomintang	6,053,366	Refer to constituency	254
					Democratic Progressive	2,036,271		66
					Democratic Nonpartisan Union	193,234		3
					Independents	253,032	—	2
1992	LY	2			Kuomintang	5,030,725	Refer to constituency	95
					Democratic Progressive	2,944,195		51
					Chinese Social Democratic	126,213		1
					Independents	1,331,555	—	14
1995	LY	3			Kuomintang	4,349,089	Refer to constituency	85
					Democratic Progressive	3,132,156		54
					New	1,222,931		21
					Independents	730,529	—	4
1996	NA	3			Kuomintang	5,180,829	Refer to constituency	183
					Democratic Progressive	3,112,736		99
					New	1,425,896		46
					Green Party Taiwan	113,942		1
					Independents	572,961	—	5
1998	LY	4			Kuomintang	4,659,679	Refer to constituency	123
					Democratic Progressive	2,966,835		70
					New	708,465		11
					Democratic Union	375,118		4
					Democratic Nonpartisan Union	66,033		3
					New Nation Alliance	157,826		1
					Taiwan Independence	145,118		1
					Independents	946,431	—	12
2001	LY	5			Democratic Progressive	3,447,740	Refer to constituency	87
					Kuomintang	2,949,371		68
					People First	1,917,836		46
					Taiwan Solidarity Union	801,560		13
					New	269,620		1
					Taiwan Number One	12,917		1
					Independents	899,254	—	9
2004	LY	6			Democratic Progressive	3,471,429	Refer to constituency	89
					Kuomintang	3,190,081		79
					People First	1,350,613		34
					Taiwan Solidarity Union	756,712		12
					Non-Partisan Solidarity Union	353,164		6
					New	12,137		1
					Independents	577,292	—	4
2005	NA	ad hoc			Democratic Progressive	Party list only	1,647,791	127
					Kuomintang		1,508,384	117
					Taiwan Solidarity Union		273,147	21
					People First		236,716	18
					Other parties		209,560	17
2008	LY	7			Kuomintang	5,291,512	5,010,801	81
					Democratic Progressive	3,775,352	3,610,106	27
					Non-Partisan Solidarity Union	239,317	68,527	3
					People First	28,254	—	1
					Independents	393,346	—	1
2012	LY	8			Kuomintang	6,339,301	5,863,379	64
					Democratic Progressive	5,763,186	4,556,526	40
					Taiwan Solidarity Union	—	1,178,896	3
					People First	175,032	722,089	3
					Non-Partisan Solidarity Union	168,861	—	2
					Independents	532,270	—	1
2016	LY	9			Democratic Progressive	5,416,683	5,370,953	68
					Kuomintang	4,724,394	3,280,949	35
					New Power	351,244	744,315	5
					People First	156,212	794,383	3
					Non-Partisan Solidarity Union	27,690	77,672	1
					Independents	668,446	—	1
2020	LY	10			Democratic Progressive	6,383,783	4,811,241	61
					Kuomintang	5,761,995	4,723,504	38
					Taiwan People's	264,478	1,588,806	5
					New Power	141,952	1,098,100	3
					Statebuilding	141,503	447,286	1
					Independents	1,086,463	—	5
2024	LY	11			Kuomintang	5,401,933	4,764,576	52
					Democratic Progressive	6,095,276	4,982,062	51
					Taiwan People's	403,357	3,040,615	8
					Independents	1,069,758	—	2

Early parliamentary supplementary elections (1969–1989)[edit]

According to the interpretation of the Constitutional Court (Judicial Yuan),^[2] under the original constitution the National Assembly, Legislative Yuan, and Control Yuan were seen to constitute the Parliament in Taiwan. After 20 years of relocating the government to Taiwan, the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China amended the Temporary Provisions against the Communist Rebellion to start limited parliamentary elections. Delegates of the National Assembly^[3] and members of the Legislative Yuan^[4] are directly elected, while members of the Control Yuan^[5] were indirectly elected by the provincial legislatures. The elected members served together with existing members elected by the 1947 Chinese National Assembly election, the 1948 Chinese legislative election, and the 1947-1948 Chinese Control Yuan election in the respective chambers.

Year	Chamber/Order		Seat composition	Political party		Seats
Year	Chamber/Order		Seat composition	Political party		Direct election	Indirect election	Presidential appointment	Total
1969	NA	supp.			Kuomintang	15	—	—	15
1969	LY	supp.			Kuomintang	8	—	—	11
1969	LY	supp.			Independents	3	—	—	11
1969	CY	supp.			Kuomintang	—	1	—	2
1969	CY	supp.			Independents	—	1	—	2
1972	NA	1st supp.			Kuomintang	43	—	—	53
1972	NA	1st supp.			Independents	10	—	—	53
1972	LY	1st supp.			Kuomintang	30	—	11	51
					Chinese Youth	1	—	0
					Independents	5	—	4
1973	CY	1st supp.			Kuomintang	—	9	4	15
					China Democratic Socialist	—	1	0
					Independents	—	0	1
1975	LY	2nd supp.			Kuomintang	30	—	13	52
					Chinese Youth	1	—	0
					Independents	6	—	2
1980	NA	2nd supp.			Kuomintang	63	—	—	76
					China Democratic Socialist	1	—	—
					Independents	12	—	—
1980	LY	3rd supp.			Kuomintang	58	—	23	97
					Chinese Youth	0	—	2
					Independents	12	—	2
1980	CY	2nd supp.			Kuomintang	—	16	5	32
					Chinese Youth	—	1	0
					China Democratic Socialist	—	0	1
					Independents	—	5	4
1983	LY	4th supp.			Kuomintang	62	—	21	98
					Chinese Youth	0	—	2
					China Democratic Socialist	0	—	1
					Independents	9	—	3
1986	NA	3rd supp.			Kuomintang	68	—	—	84
					Democratic Progressive	11	—	—
					China Democratic Socialist	1	—	—
					Independents	4	—	—
1986	LY	5th supp.			Kuomintang	59	—	20	100
					Democratic Progressive	12	—	0
					Chinese Youth	0	—	2
					China Democratic Socialist	0	—	1
					Independents	2	—	4
1987	CY	3rd supp.			Kuomintang	—	17	7	32
					Chinese Youth	—	1	0
					China Democratic Socialist	—	0	1
					Independents	—	4	2
1989	LY	6th supp.			Kuomintang	72	—	22	130
					Democratic Progressive	21	—	0
					Chinese Youth	0	—	1
					Independents	8	—	6

References[edit]

^ January 31, 2007.CEC Completes Legislative Constituency Redistricting Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine. Taiwan Headlines. Retrieved on 2008-01-12.
^ J.Y. Interpretation No. 76
^ 中央選舉委員會歷次選舉摘要－國民大會代表選舉
^ 中央選舉委員會歷次選舉摘要－立法委員選舉
^ 中央選舉委員會歷次選舉摘要－監察委員選舉

[1] January 31, 2007.CEC Completes Legislative Constituency Redistricting Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine. Taiwan Headlines. Retrieved on 2008-01-12.

[2] J.Y. Interpretation No. 76

[3] 中央選舉委員會歷次選舉摘要－國民大會代表選舉

[4] 中央選舉委員會歷次選舉摘要－立法委員選舉

[5] 中央選舉委員會歷次選舉摘要－監察委員選舉

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

v t e Elections and referendums in Taiwan
Presidential elections	1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 2028
Legislative Yuan elections	1969 1972 1975 1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 2028
Local elections	1935 1936 1939 1940 1946 1950–51 1952 1954 1955 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1963 1964 1965 1968 1969 1971 1972 1973 1975 1977 1978 1981 1982 1985 1986 1989 1990 1993 1994 1997–98 2001–02 2005–06 2009 2010 2014 2018 2022 2026
Referendums	2004 2008 (Jan) 2008 (Mar) 2018 2021 2022
National Assembly elections	1969 1972 1980 1986 1991 1996 2005
See also: Elections in the Republic of China (1912–49) Presidential elections in the Republic of China List of by-elections in Taiwan